devotion to the boston red sox is so total that it has corrupted all of your values, all of your ability toee things straight and, secondly, that i can actually get through three hours with you without to totally destroying my own career. thank you. it's a miracle. >> it is indeed way too early. "the daily rundown" with chuck todd. with a second term on the horizon president obama will face the white house press corps for the first time in months. take a guess at what's topping our list of questions. we'll have a lot of stuff on there, the latest twists and turns involving the scandal embroiling the most prominent military figures. reaction to that and, of course, the fiscal cliff facing us all. we'll have senator patti murray to preview that. who will lead the democrats to a larger majority for 2013. plus, exit strategy one week after election day. what do voters' thoughts and some key questions tell us where the two parties are about where the country is moving on some

serious policy issues? we'll show you the not so obvious differences between the swing states and the national averages. those numbers in today's deep dive. autopsy 2012. also this hour, we're going to hear live from maine's independent senator elect, angus king, about which party he plans to caucus with in the senate. he has to make that decision. pretty obvious where he's going but he's creating some drama anyway. and then we're counting down to nancy pelosi's big announcement about her future. will she step aside as the top democrat in the house? we will learn that this hour. good morning from washington. it's wednesday, november 14, 2012. this is "the daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. let's get right to my first reads of the morning. the president holds his first news conference today, since august. what was supposed to be a re-election victory lap and a way to -- an opportunity to press for his vision on a deficit reduction deal is going to be overshadowed because there are going to be questions about two four star generals who have

dominated the news this week. this morning there is new information in that widening scandal about the fbi probe and the two women in the center of it all, tampa socialite jill kelley and paula broadwell. some ask why did the fbi wait to notify them about the investigation and why the director of national intelligence was not informed until election night. given that the investigation had been under way for months. now the white house was squiz quizzed yesterday on whether the president is satisfied with that time line. first at a news conference in australia where secretaries panetta and clinton are holding bilateral meetings, they should hold opinion until the facts are known about general allen, the latest -- >> no one should leap to any conclusions. no one should leap to any conclusions here. general allen is doing an excellent job. he certainly has my continued confidence to lead our forces and to continue the fight.

but his nomination has been put on hold. as a prudent measure until we determine what the facts are. >> and though he praised allen, panetta said he felt it was important to refer the matter to the pentagon's inpeck tore general. the senior defense official tells nbc news that panetta didn't make this decision lightly. secretary clinton acknowledged she has talked to u.s. partners about the allen case but says it won't harm the war effort. >> general allen is a distinguished marine and commander who has been an important part of the nato isap mission in afghanistan. there's been a lot of conversation, as you might expect, bob, but no concern whatsoever being expressed to us because the mission has been set forth. it is being carried out. >> the head of nato also told reporters today in brussels that he has full confidence in general allen. we are also learning more about the 20,000 to 30,000 documents that include some e-mails

between general allen and the tampa socialite jill kelley which the pentagon calls potentially inappropriate communications. the fbi has characterized some of the e-mails as, quote, flirtatious. the general strongly denies any misconduct and the fbi has not found any wrongdoing. we're also learning more about kelley herself who is known in tampa for throwing lavish parties at the ten bedroom home she and her husband own. she has also been known to claim diplomatic status, complaining to police in two calls last weekend that media should get off her lawn because of her supposed special status. >> i am an honorary consul general, so i have inviolability so they should not be able to cross my property. i don't know if you want to get diplomatic immunity involved as well. >> i can assure you that she does not work for the state department and has no formal affiliation with the state

department. >> meanwhile, a south korean official does confirm to nbc news that jill kelley is an honorary consul for south korea. the official says the title is honorary, that kelley is not an employee and does not have diplomatic immunity. one of the likely developments in this odd soap opera is that jill kelley wind up on reality tv. guess what? she already has. nearly ten years ago competing in a cooking competition with her twin sister on the food network. >> it's nice to go up against guys. >> boy, andy warhol was so right, wasn't he? the fbi has explained its consensual search of paula broadwell's home on monday evening as a push to determine how she obtained classified files, documents were found on the computer she turned over to the fbi in september. now the justice department says the investigation thus far has shown no evidence of a security breach citing one reason they

did not notify the white house about the investigation until last week. well, to what degree will the president's first news conference since his re-election be dominate d by all of this? if he had done it last thursday there wouldn't have been a single question about all of this because it wasn't known yet. we'll get the answer at 1:30 today in the east room. jay carney struggled tuesday when i asked him whether the president is satisfied with how quickly the fbi provided information to the president. >> there are protocols in place, as i understand it, and i haven't -- >> it sounds like you don't have an answer? >> i am not suggesting the president, you know, is -- given that he was surprised that he is pleased with the events of this past week, but the past several days, but the fact of the matter is there are processes in place to handle these kinds of things. >> it sounds like he doesn't like the fact that he was blind sided? >> no, i didn't say that. >> the president's press

conference will also lay bare the degrees to which the petraeus story is a distraction from budget negotiations. carney argued yesterday that hard deadlines trump everything. >> we have very concrete deadlines. he expects that those who are engaged in conversations about it and negotiations about it will be as focused as he is. >> the president is likely to lay out his opening offer in more detail this afternoon. yesterday the president made two promises, we understand, to labor and progressive leaders that he met with at the white house. one, that tax rates for the wealthy are going up at the end of the year, period. and, two, he's looking for $1.6 trillion in additional revenue before he begins to deal on potential structural changes. twice, by the way, that $1.6 trillion, is twice the amount of revenue that he and boehner put on the table last summer. it's a clear sign to the left that the president has stopped beginning his negotiations from the middle ground, something democrats have often complained about with this president.

afl-cio president said he's confident that the president is not going to fold. >> the president led with that notion of protecting the middle class. are we going to collectively stand up and make sure that workers get a fair shake in all of this? absolutely we are. do we believe that the president is committed to that same thing? absolutely we do. will the president show today he's willing to go over the fiscal cliff if reboundians don't make the deal they are satisfied with. in a new pew poll, 50% will not reach an agreement in time. 53% are assuming republicans will be more to blame if no deal is struck. but yesterday minority leader mitch mcconnell, who met with the three gop freshmen, new senators, will join the repub c republican conference, struck a hard line when it came to tax rates. >> in politics there is always a temptation among those who win office to think that they have a

mandate to do what they will. most people may focus on the white house, but the fact is the government is organized no differently today than it was after the republican wave of 2010. >> also today the president is scheduled to meet with ceos from a dozen companies including general electric, ford, and ibm. it's an effort to prove he has some political capital in the business community and also an effort to try to patch up things with some members of the business community. finally, today's decision day on capitol hill. house minority leader nancy pelosi had will answer questions about her political future. >> will you plan to stay on as the leader? will you run again for the top slot? >> let's see, what time is it now? it's 2:00 on tuesday. i'll see you right here 10:00 tomorrow morning. while i love you all very dearly, i thought maybe i would talk to my own caucus before i shared that information with you. >> well, the person probably

watching that 10:00 announcement most closely is her number two, congressman steny hoyer. we do believe we'll learn something before 10:00, by the way. house republicans will choose between washington state's kathy mcmorris rogers as they're conference chair to the number three position in house gop leadership. it's become a proxy fight, if you will, between speaker boehner, who has remained neutral publicly but considers a royal ally and congressman paul ryan who is supporting price. last night ryan responded to boehner's memorable line about whether ryan may step up and lead the republican party. >> i wouldn't think so. paul ryan is a policy -- >> i take that as a great compliment from john. i've been one of the house policy wonks. my role is to continue to be a champion of ideas. >> conservative blogger eric erickson is among those who think ryan should step up. he wrote in his influential blog, quote, john boehner has been willing to throw his conference under the bus repeatedly. house republicans should think

very carefully if the faux tan face of john boehner is the face they want for their party the next two years. they should consider paul ryan as their speaker. that is ideological shots fired, if you will. and finally in a few minutes we do expect to hear from which party maine senator elect angus king will caucus with. interestingly enough we know of no one-on-one meetings. this is exactly what everyone has assumed the entire time that he will caucus with the democrats. all right, general petraeus' replacement at the cia mike morell met tuesday. he'll speak with counterparts on the house side today about the scandals, the national security implications, why congress wasn't told soon er and, also, e assume benghazi will come up. joining me now the national investigative correspondent michael isikoff and capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell. kelly, let me start with you before i get to mike on the latest on the general scandal itself. congress continues to basically wring their hands over why

didn't they know sooner on this front. are they getting any more answers today? >> reporter: well, they expect to get more answers as there is now a kind of greater spirit of providing answers. we've seen the top people from the cia, the acting director who was here yesterday back again today, also the deputy director of the fbi coming to talk to the key members who are on those committees. they would have jurisdiction here, who believe they should have been in the loop at some point. so that's one issue. but a lot of this gets conflated with concerns about what actually happened in benghazi, what did general petraeus, the cia director at the time, know about those events? and can he still provide testimony? those are questions that need to be worked out. one of the questions has been since he is no longer in the job as cia director, does he still have the ability to provide testimony, some of those things are being sorted out. >> there's a question of security clearance. there's a little question about that, right? >> reporter: and would he be

able to handle the classified materials in a setting now even if he were no longer too much the security clearance. there's a lot of those sorts of details that need to be sorted out but there's an insistence by many members that they do want to see and hear from general petraeus and there is beginning to be a bit more cooperation in getting some answers. i think we'll see then if people here feel they've gotten some of their questions answered. it may calm down a bit. chu chuck? >> all right, kelly o'donnell on capitol hill. kelly, thanks. now i want to turn to mike isikoff. you've been doing a lot of reporting on jill kelley, the nexus on that front, inside these e-mails, and there seems to be a mixed message regarding general allen. how much is he at risk in this investigation? >> well, it's very hard to say. we are learning new details almost by the hour. it now appears it was general allen that first got the e-mails, not jill kelley, warning -- >> that allen got paula broadwell's e-mails first?

>> yes. it's been reported from somebody identifying themselves as kelly patrol and the e-mails suggested jill kelley was somebody that he ought to be staying away from, a temptress in some way and that he then turned the e-mails over. somehow those e-mails then made their way to jill can kelley who shares them with the fbi agent, her friend, which triggers the whole cyber stalking investigation. i should say, chuck, one issue, the deputy director of thefy pie is going to be briefing the intelligence committees in closed doors today and the situation is a little more awkward for the fbi here because the initial account we were told was the investigation of broadwell had been wrapped up on friday, november 2. that's why clapper is told. the following tuesday, election day. it appears the investigation at least on the national security front, the classified information, was still open and that's how we saw the search the other night at paula broadwell's

home. so it does raise the question why didn't the fbi -- why did the fbi do the briefing then, only on election day, if the investigation on classified information was still open. >> right. it flies in the face of the reason they supposedly finally did let clapper know. anyway, mike isikoff, thanks very much. up next, if democrats don't get the deal they want, will they let the country go over the fiscal cliff? that's the big question that hangs out there over the president over some democrats. senator patti murray joins me next. on that and how she defied the odds and ended up adding more democrats to the senate. is it one or two? we'll find out in a minute. independents day, the question we all think we know the answer to but maine's senator elect will announce which party he's planning to caucus with. first a look ahead at the schedule of the president. a press conference at 1:30 and then he meets with the ceos after the press conference.

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live pictures here of capitol hill. this is maine's independent senator elect angus king. he's about to announce which party he will kau can cuss with. king is picking sides ahead of the senate leadership elections later today. let's take a quick listen. >> or associate myself with a caucus is which side to choose. and the outcome of last week's elections in some ways makes this decision relatively easy. in the situation where one party has a clear majority and

effectiveness is an important criteria, affiliating with the majority makes the most sense. the majority has more committee slots to fill, has more control over what bills get considered, and more control over the senate schedule. but the question remains, what does caucusing mean? and this is a question i raise continuously in the campaign, and how does this decision affect my intention to remain as independent as possible? in order to answer this i had substantial conversations with two independent senators currently serving in the senate. both of whom are affiliated with the democratic caucus. joe lieberman of connecticut and bernie sanders of vermont. both confirmed that the democratic caucus generally and its leadership in particular had consistently allowed them to

maintain their independent positions and had never forced positions upon them in the name of party loyalty. secondly, i had lengthy discussions with the democratic leader, harry reid of nevada, as well as former majority leader and my good friend george mitchell of maine on this very question. i came away from these conversations reassured that my independence would be respected and that no party line commitment would be -- >> and there you have it, angus king giving his justification for joining the democratic caucus, so we will talk to democratic senator that was partially responsible for helping to get angus king ele elected. the race is on to line up political allies before negotiations start tuesday. the president met with the labor community today. he holds that first press conference since his re-election and will meet with congressional leaders at the end of the week, all of this because the one takeaway from the failed 2011 fiscal talks was the need to have an outside game. joining me now patti murray and a member of last year's super committee, the group that tried

to reach a deal to avoid sequestrati sequestration. i apologize to come to you late wanting to get senator elect king's official announcement there that he's joining your caucus. >> that's great. >> i assume you would have been surprised if he had come to any other conclusion? >> well, i had a chance to talk with him last night. i think he's going to be a great member of our kau can cuss, a good, strong voice on issues that i care about deeply and we welcome him. >> let's talk about what you would like to hear from the president today when it comes to the fiscal cliff. i've talked to a lot of democrats privately who believe the president needs to make republicans believe that if the deal isn't aood one that the fiscal -- going over the fiscal cliff is a viable option. do you believe it's a viable option? >> well, i know, as we all know, that our country has a real challenge with our debt and deficit and i would argue with our investment in people so that we can be vibrant once again in order to meet that challenge we

have to have a balanced and fair approach that talks about spending cuts and entitlements and revenue. if revenue is not part of that package it's going to fall on the middle class. if the revenue falls on the middle class it is an unfair, unbalanced package. this president ran and won on saying to the american people the wealthiest americans have to participate in this challenge. it's now up to us to meet that goal and find a solution to this problem. >> but to answer the question spes specifically, do you think the president needs to keep as a live option going over the cliff if necessary? >> i think the president was very clear in his campaign, and i think the response from the american people in electing him was that we want a fair and balanced deal, and that means having a revenue package that does include the wealthiest americans. and i think he has made that clear. i'm sure he'll make that more clear today. >> okay. but, again, are you -- do you believe that's a viable option, going over the cliff?

>> none of us want to go over the fiscal cliff, but none of us want to be sitting here in a couple months with an unfair package that hurts our middle class more than they've been hurt so, yes, if the republicans continue to sit in their corner and say wealthiest americans don't participate, then the result will be that we will go off the fiscal cliff. >> now there seems to be a debate between tax rates and tax revenue. and i know you were in the middle of this during the super committee hearings and it can seem like semantics to some, but it clearly is a red line for others. are you willing to -- do you think it's a necessary that even t temporarily the bush tax rates have to be decoupled and those rates have to go up for 2013 for the wealthiest before tax reform negotiations go into more detail for 2013? >> well, timing is critical, and the bush tax cuts all expire at the end of this year. we can and, in fact, the senate has -- the house just passed a bill to extend the tax cuts for

98% of americans, not those earning more than $250,000 on their income over $250,000. we can do that right now, and i think that's an important step for our economy. but we can't just continue to believe the rhetoric that we don't have to raise the tax rates for the wealthiest and we have the revenue that will help us solve this problem. >> i want to ask you about susan rice or john kerry for secretary of state. do you have a preference? do you think one would be an easier confirmation than the other? >> i think they both have incredible depth of knowledge and capability in that position and i'm waiting to hear what the president has to say to us. >> you don't believe there is a confirmation issue with susan ri rice? >> i think susan rice has done an incredible job for our country. she has a right if she is nominated to come before the senate and make her case, and i hope that no one draws lines in the sand until she has that opportunity if she's nominated. >> all right. senator patty murray, who is

chairwoman of the dnc. i understand you don't want to do that job again. >> i have other responsibilities, yes. >> we will wait to see who comes next. senator murray, thanks for coming on this morning. >> thank you. and we have some breaking news that we let you know of during the bottom banner, but house minority leader nancy pelosi is once again going to run for leader. again the official announcement is at 10:00 this morning. she is running once again. it means the leadership will be exactly the same. not just the partisan breakdowns of the house, the senate and the presidency, the exact same people are in the room for each party. harry reid, mitch mcconnell, john boehner, nancy pelosi, president obama. market rundown is next plus our daily rundown of undecided races including which democrat is being vetted on the hill though his race isn't officially over. first today's trivia question. who is the only speaker of the house to be elected president? [ woman ] ring. ring.

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breaking news this morning. we have the angus king news, nancy pelosi news, lots of other stuff on our radar. democrats are keeping a close eye on the vote tally in arizona and senator scott brown is hinting at his political future. first as new members make their way to capitol hill, allen west continues to fight for his seat. west has now filed a complained in st. lucie county yesterday calling for a recount of all the early ballots in the race. west trails patrick murphy by 0.58% and according to state law an automatic recount is needed only when a difference in votes is 0.5% or less so not at that

threshold. west told nbc, quote, i think that we need to have the electoral process play out as it should, and then wherever the results lie, that's fine with me. but i want to make sure we have honor and integrity in that process. meanwhile, on the hill yesterday democrats held a press conference to introduce incoming members of congress and the house minority leader nancy pelosi addressed murphy as congressman elect. the only nonsitting member to speak. meanwhile, out in arizona there are 340,000 ballots that have yet to be counted in the senate race between richard carmona and jeff flake. carmona did concede on election night when he was losing by six percentage points. as votes continued to be tallied, the carmona campaign is keeping a close eye on the count. he's been gaining in the tally and appears to have at least a distant shot at the seat after all. the most recent results show flake in the lead by 7 the,547 votes or about four percentage points overall. 2 million ballots were cast in the race. as of monday afternoon 170,000

early votes and another 170,000 provisional ballots had yet to be tallied statewide and we do know that democrats have a history in arizona of both overperforming in the early vote and overperforming in provisional ballots. of course how many of those will be legal ballots we don't know that question yet, but it's a tall order but not impossible. it's only been a week since senator scott brown lost to elizabeth warren. but many are wondering what his next move might be if, for instance, his democratic colleague senator john kerry gets nominated to a cabinet post. he said kerry would make a great secretary of state. >> i've already been public on that quite a while ago and i told him personally that i thought he would make an excellent secretary of state. i haven't even thought about any other positions but those are questions best asked of him and the president. >> something brown actually might run for governor or the senate seat if kerry does take up a post.

massachusetts would have an entire special election for senate seat that democrats changed that law back when mitt romney was governor and they thought john kerry would be president of the united states. unintended consequences. in a press conference yesterday brown touched on the speculation saying he's, quote, unaware of a vacant seat for governor and senator and said that he'll, quote, see what happens but isn't thinking about that right now. speaking of future races for governor, democratic senator mark warner would have a good shot at becoming governor if he does run for his old job. the poll shows warner leading republican candidate bill bolling and leads the attorney general. so far the only announced democrat is mcauliffe. warner says he'll decide by thanksgiving whether to seek another term as governor. finally, nbc news has learned george p. bush, we already knew he would be running for statewide 0 office, now the office he will run for is land commissioner.

bush is the son of ex-florida governor jeb bush. cause add stir when he made that texas campaign filing to start raising money. president obama met with labor leaders on tuesday. he'll meet with business leaders today as he tries to gain port. becky quick joins me now, the market rundown. markets have been open for four minutes. and what do the markets make of what the president said yesterday? and are they going to wait to see what he says today? >> i think they're going to wait today. the markets are trading higher in the first few minutes of trading. it looks like it's up by 40 points right now. we'll it continue to track this because we have seen some pretty sketchy trading patterns. yesterday we saw the market open down by about 60 points. it rallied up to 140 points for the dow but gave it back and ended down by 60 points for the dow. a lot of things -- people moving on headlines. chuck, a couple of things you had on your show are things wall street will be watching very closely. you had that interview with senator pa ittty murray, this i key. she was laying out her position for how if we don't get their

way -- the democrats don't get their way, they are prepared to allow the fiscal cliff, allow us to go over the edge. what she is saying people on the far left is similar to what some on the far right is saying. this is an odd scenario where the extremes are in agreement on this. the far right, some of those house republicans are saying they'll go right over the edge because they don't mind some of the cuts coming to government. they think it would be a good thing. the question is does wall street hear any sort of conciliatory tones in this, or do they hear these extreme voices being the ones that come out the loudest? that is how wall street is gauging this, a big part of the calculation. >> all right, becky quick, thank you much. we'll be watching. curious to see when the president says on that very question. up next, necessary, i'm at the app. it wasn't just the demographics or the turnout. republicans lost on some of the issues. a deep dive into what could be deep trouble for both parties going forward. the differences battleground states.

the bubbles of the water. lots of talk this week about how republicans need to update their ground game, their tactics, to have a shot at the white house in 2016. the machine is not the only problem. it might be the message, too. today a deep dive in a slew of issues to figure out where does the position match up with the majority of voters in swing states. first a look at the country's overall ideology. i want to show you these things. we'll go through the swing states and show you the differences here. first of all, the most underappreciated number here is this issue with moderate.

41% of the country calls themselves moderate. that's more than conservative and obviously more than liberal. you see the ten-point swing there. let's go and see the differences now in the state. if you will. let's slide over here. there we go. as you can see here, here are the states, what i've highlighted of the battleground states that were the more liberal, if you will, than the national average, colorado and new hampshire. keep an eye on the kcolorado number. it's odd. the most moderate of the states were virginia here as you're seeing there. whoops. let me slide it over. we are having a funky little time here with our machine. again, it's sort of tired from the election just like the rest of us. as you can see these conservative numbers of the battleground states, ohio and iowa the only two more conservative than the national average, virginia more moderate. now let's move on to some issues. the role of government, should government do less or more, the majority sort of on the republican side of this. 51% to 43%.

how did that break in the swing states? there's the national average of 51%. a majority of swing states were were taking the more conservative position that should make republicans feel better but question whether they know how to message in these places. iowa the most conservative. then colorado, ohio, new hampshire, nevada. only wisconsin and florida, by the way, wisconsin, how about that, wisconsin and florida below the national average on whether government should do less. let's talk about health care. repeal some or all? 49% nationally. leave it or expand it 44%. there's a five-point difference on this and i want you to follow that in the swing states, if you will. as you can see colorado, iowa, ohio and florida all higher than the national average on the repeal, if you will, below, nevada, virginia, wisconsin. have virginia number might surprise some people. all -- look at wisconsin was the only state in the battleground states where the expanded actually -- or not only leave it alone or expanded actually was higher than the repeal some or

all. wisconsin, which was ground zero during the whole role of government debate with the unions. finally, who should see tax hik hikes? everyone -- those making over $250,000 or everyone? that was 60% overall. it's something you've heard from the president. he believes this gives them a mandate on his position when it comes to taxes. let's look at the states. look at this. ne nevada, wisconsin, virginia, iowa and new hampshire, all above that national average. ohio and, of course, very tax sensitive florida below that national average on that front and of course in florida there is no taxes, if you will. so very interesting. we do not pose the tax question, by the way, in colorado. but overall it was interesting to see colorado calling itself the most liberal. it the most self-described liberals and were more conservative in the overall picture on the column. more on the republican side. anyway, our political panel will be here next but, first, the white house soup of the day. coconut shrimp. is this what the business leaders will be snacking on?

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to keep back pain away all day. today, jason chose aleve. just two pills for all day pain relief. try aleve d for strong, all day long sinus and headache relief. it was just eight days ago that we held the election, folks. the fiscal cliff looming in the not so far distance. the president did not want to start his first full week after the campaign dealing with a scanndal involving his national security team, in particular his spy chief. let's bring in our tuesday panel, alfonso and chief of the u.s. office of citizen shl under president george w. bush, "usa today's" jackie kucinich and medal of honor recipient colonel jack jacobs. i want to start with you. i know you've been asked this this question a couple of times

and it is nagging at me because the military is held up. a scandal like this involving two four-star generals and, yes, the jury is still out on general allen and i think his denial needs to be taken more at face value. you can't help but wonder is there a culture here we're missing? >> well, you know, all of the mistakes are made by individuals at the end of the day. there's a fairly robust culture to make sure that people who have high standards both professional and moral rise to the top ranks. it's mott flawless and from time to time people make mistakes. i think -- i'm old enough to remember dwight eisenhower who carried on a long-term affair with his driver and it was fairly well known yet nothing was done about it. i think trying to extrapolate saying as a result of this scandal that we should not

necessarily hold the system in repute as a bad one. it is a good system that works hard to elevate people to the top. it isn't flawless. >> are you concerned actually that you could have the reverse issue, that you're looking for such purity and such -- >> well, you're not going to get it. >> well, all right. but does that mean either you won't get it or you get less qualified people who just may be of such high moral character that it makes it easier to confirm them? >> you not only won't get what you are looking for but you are liable to wind up elevating people who are not qualified to do what they are supposed to do. the interesting thing about this generalship business is that sometimes the very nature of being a general officer -- although they have lots of authority and responsibility --

there is something of a cocoon that develops, surrounded by people, everything gets taken care of you and all that kind of stuff. it is easy to get complacent. >> that was the general mcchrystal story and how he allowed the loose lips issue there. david, i want to tern turn to where the white house, this is not the issue they want to talk about. half their press conference is going to be in some form of this. but it also seems they're not politically scared of this issue, are they? >> no. what's interesting about this one you think of this big scandal, national security implications. >> it should be at the heart. >> but because petraeus is a republican, because he served for a republican -- >> seemed as a republican. we don't know that he is. >> jay carney said that he served the country in that party but he served under a republican president. >> alfonso, is that fair? there would be louder republican voices on this if it was a closer member of the obama team? >> yeah, i think we'll hear,

we're hearing some republicans asking the tough questions. the timing of this story is unfortunate. it generates a lot of questions and suspicion. that he went to the hill and told members of congress that the benghazi situation was a reaction to spontaneous -- was a spontaneous -- >> this was the cia report this goes to what the white house has been say iing all along, what t cia intelligence at the time was saying? >> the station chief of the cia was say iing that this was a premeditated terrorist attack. senator mccain and the house calling for a special committee to investigate. so i think there are going to be a lot of questions about this not only about the sex scandal but is this related to benghazi.

>> the senators want him to testify still. talking to people on the hill on both sides of the aisle you heard, yeah, he should come in and testify and talk to us about this no matter what his formal status is at this point. >> i was going to say, are colonel jacobs, go ahead. >> getting cast gags from the hill, that's the last place you're going to have people talk about moral terpitude. seriously i don't think you'll get a whole lot of complaints, one of the reasons you have quite frankly a great deal of support for general allen from both sides of the aisle. >> very true. >> all right. colonel jacobs, i want to thank you. before i let you go, i should let everybody here at the table know, we just learned according to a senior official in the senate, david petraeus will testify tomorrow. he will come on capitol hill. so there is your potential -- it may be offsite. it may not happen on capitol hill but he will testify at least in private with members of the intelligence committee. colonel jacobs, thank you much.

the rest of the panel stick around. i want to talk domestic politics. trivia time, who is the only speaker of the house to be elected to the presidency? the answer james k. polk. he served as speaker between 1835 and 1839 before leaving to become governor of tennessee and then later the 11th president of the united states. if you have a political trivia question for us, e-mail us. into their work,

their name on the door, and their heart into their community. small business saturday is a day to show our support. a day to shop at stores owned by our friends and neighbors. and do our part for the businesses that do so much for us. on november 24th, let's get out and shop small. why they have a raise your rate cd. tonight our guest, thomas sargent. nobel laureate in economics, and one of the most cited economists in the world. professor sargent, can you tell me what cd rates will be in two years? no. if he can't, no one can. that's why ally has a raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally.

we are not eliminating the department of energy. we are not letting detroit go bankrupt. we are not vetoing the d.r.e.a.m. act. we had the choice to do that, and we said no. >> bring back our panel. hour full of breaking news. we heard about angus king with the democrats. nancy pelosi running again. david petraeus will testify tomorrow in front of senate intelligence committee, not in front of cameras but on capitol hill tomorrow. let me bring back alfonso and jackie and i want to go back to the nancy pelosi news.

alfonso, status quo, but it's status quo among the leaders. boehner and mcconnell still in charge. although they did better and you could argue there's no reason. are you surprised there's not a push to change leaders inside your party even if it's just the face of the party a little bit? >> it's difficult. within the house there is -- i think there will be a battle for the conference chair. >> but it's a -- >> i'm surprised, yeah, but at the same time, we need strong leadership and a strong speaker and i think boehner can do a good job -- >> looks like he's going to get more political leeway. he doesn't have eric cantor. it seems like there's for trust between the two but, jackie, if the american people had known they not only were re-electing status quo but the same people are in the room that gave us the

gridlock, i wonder how that ballot would have turned out. >> i wonder if he said it's going to be the same people in the room, and, you know, a lot of this is going to be theater. we were talking about that for the first couple of days, hopefully not weeks but there will be a lot of, we'll give this, we won't give that. i can reread the clips. >> david, the three -- it's interesting, you know, looking for both parties are in search of new faces, look at the house democrats, top three leaders, are all over the age of 70. there is a push, in fact, if pelosi had left and this may have influenced her, then you would have had a white male take over the house democrats when a majority of the house democratic caucus is now white male. >> the country is changing so much, i think the obama illustrated that four years ago and talked about that a lot. his base is very diverse. people want that but i don't know, in one way you say this is the status quo and how surprised

we are, but the other way we are so deadlocked, so red and blue, 50/50 and what's more important will be what the outcome of this negotiation is. >> we are looking dak ail f-- alfonso, the message was sent on immigration. >> we have the same leaders but hopefully they understand that there is a different mandate and the mandate is for them to work together. immigration is important because i think when it comes to republicans we are seeing a seismic change when it comes to latinos and those anti-immigration, all of a sudden are saying we want to work on it. >> 85 votes. shameless plugs, you first? >> i'm sorry to start out with something shameless but family to family doing a lot to make sure people on long island and

various parts of new york affected by sandy are having good thanksgivings. you can donate familiar if i to family. just making the holidays a little better. >> david? >> want to say congratulations to our outgoing editor at "the washington post" on a great run and welcome to marty -- >> both great newspaper men and both should be held in high esteem. >> lay si psrsigan. the third year at notre dame, this is the third year -- >> they should have won last year. you realize they had this string going. '11 should have been their year. >> and go, buckingham palas. >> dad, thinking about you a lot today. we'll see you right back here tomorrow. coming up next on msnbc, chris jansing, bye-bye. one.

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